Within the fast-expanding field of romantic comedy (or ‘romcom’) studies, the analysis of the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US has mostly centred on Working Title productions of the nineties and early noughties, with a particular focus on films associated with the writer–director Richard Curtis, such as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) and Love Actually (2003). Annabel Honess Roe, for example, notes that by constructing Britishness in opposition to Americanness, Curtis's films offer a homogenised version of British national identity that ‘neglect[s] the cultural and ethnic diversity of contemporary Britain’ (Honess Roe 2009: 90). Andrew Higson attributes this restricted representation to the process of transnational film distribution, during which ‘ “national cultures” are often reduced down to brand images’ (Higson 2011: 93). This converges with the work of Richard Maltby, whose analysis of the reception of Hollywood films abroad emphasises the inevitable distortion of media messages when consumed by non-domestic audiences. He thus suggests that the version of America consumed by British audiences of Hollywood films is necessarily less complex than that of domestic audiences (Maltby and Stokes 2004: 2–3). Like Maltby’s, my focus here is the distribution and consumption of film across the Atlantic and, more specifically, the reception of Hollywood cinema in Britain. Where this chapter differs from other contributions in this collection is in its methodology, as I approach the transatlantic romance between Britain and the US via audience studies. Drawing on original empirical audience data (see Guilluy 2017), I want to question the ‘specialness’ of this relationship by focusing on British audiences’ responses to a genre closely associated with Hollywood: the romantic comedy.

The material upon which this chapter is drawn comes from a set of original interviews conducted with romcom viewers in Britain, France and Germany between 2013 and 2015. The respondents were recruited both online and through word of mouth, with a view to investigating the impact of national identity on cinematic consumption and taste. This chapter draws primarily on interviews with UK audiences, conducted in London, Manchester and Kent. The majority of the ninety participants were students and young professionals in their twenties to early thirties. Most were also white and educated to degree level, and two-thirds of participants identified as women.